GO, notifications, rules to remain just click away

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A Z M Anas
In a major move, the government will set up an electronic registry system this month to enable Bangladeshi nationals to have access to the country's regulations, officials said Tuesday.
They said chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed is expected to inaugurate the first ever e-registry system on February 20 to lessen the hassles people face in obtaining government orders, gazette notifications and rules.
"Nothing will be concealed. People will be able to find any rules with just a click," establishment secretary Abdus Salam Khan said.
"The initiative is part of the government's policy to ensure Right to Information. If fully developed, the web site will provide all new and old government orders and gazette notifications for the intending users," he told the FE.
The move comes in line with a recommendation of the Regulatory Reform Commission, an independent body, to make the rules available to the public.
Since independence, the country has got a plethora of rules and orders, but those cannot be found in books or offices much to the misery of the public.
The establishment secretary said the new system would allow a Bangladeshi citizen to retrieve a relevant rule quickly from any place in the world.
Ministry officials said that initially, people would be able to find new gazette notifications on the designated web site, but old ones would be posted on subject-wise and ministry-wise later.
Chief adviser has asked the establishment ministry to develop the web site on its own funding.
"It's just a beginning. We've to bring in sophisticated technology to give the web site a better shape where people will get not only new rules, but also old ones," Khan said.
RRC chairman Akbar Ali Khan said people will find it useful as there exists no published books containing the rules, public orders, nor a central system to obtain those.
"Right now, rules are available with ministries or in the drawers of officials. People face harassment in obtaining the rules, if needed. When a person gets entangled in a case for violating law, he does not know the law for which he has been accused," Khan, a former caretaker adviser and bureaucrat, added.
Khan noted countries such as the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom have developed such web sites to lessen the people's woes in finding national regulations.
The sources said the government will bear the initial costs of developing the web site but the establishment secretary said they may consider securing donor funds to make it a cutting-edge one.
"It will take time and sophisticated tool to make the web site a fully-developed one," he said.
The interim government has set up the high-profile reform commission to recommend overhauling the country's age-old regulations while making those simpler and time-befitting.
The commission, headed by Akbar Ali Khan, has already approved a series of recommendations, including simplification of foreign loan approval, land registry system and streamlining the operations of courier service providers.